Tag Archive | "Australian wine"
David Lemire MW talks vintage 2011 in Adelaide Hills, “a race between ripeness & botrytis”
So far, this week’s 2011 vintage reports have focused on New South Wales (Clonakilla) and Victoria ( with reports from William Downie, Nick Farr of By Farr & Steve Flamsteed of Innocent Bystander). Today’s video focuses on the Adelaide Hills, further west, in South Australia. Click here for my video interview with David Lemire MW of Shaw [...]
Continue reading...Innocent Bystander’s Steve Flamsteed toasts the cream of the Yarra Valley 2011 crop & talks surplus
Posted Thursday 15th September 2011
In my fourth video interview this week focused on Australia’s 2011 vintage, I talk to Steve Flamsteed of Innocent Bystander/Giant Steps about the Yarra Valley. Despite swingeing crop losses - the harvest was down by around 40% – Flamsteed had plenty to smile about when we discussed which varieties performed best. He reckons “the Chardonnay was the best they’ve [...]
Continue reading...Nick Farr: latest releases & an interview about Geelong’s 2011 Pinot Noirs & Chardonnays, “unlike any vintage we’ve seen before”
Posted Wednesday 14th September 2011
Gary and Nick Farr (pictured) are the father and son team behind By Farr in Geelong, Victoria. At last year’s Landmark tutorial Michael Hill-Smith MW memorably described Gary Farr as “John the Baptist of Australian Pinot” for his pivotal role in converting the industry to a variety once widely regarded as “positively unAustralian.” Getting under Pinot’s skin has seen Farr [...]
Continue reading...William Downie: latest releases & an interview about the exciting 2011 Pinot Noirs
Posted Tuesday 13th September 2011
They say one man’s meat is another man’s poison and so it was for Pinot Noir specialist William (Bill) Downie in the 2011 vintage, in which the eastern states experienced unprecedented wet, cool weather over summer and through autumn (click here for the Winemakers Federation of Australia’s 2011 vintage report). As Downie puts it “Pinot Noir [...]
Continue reading...Clonakilla: latest releases & an interview with Tim Kirk about the 2011 vintage
Posted Monday 12th September 2011
By all accounts, big picture, 2011 was a challenging vintage for Australia’s winemakers in the eastern states (South Australia, Victoria, New South Wales, Tasmania, Queensland), which experienced unprecedented wet weather over summer and through autumn, resulting in some heavy crop losses. There were high hopes that these losses might at least help redress the country’s [...]
Continue reading...A couple of delicious new releases from Pierro, Margaret River
Posted Monday 22nd August 2011
My white August Wine of the Month is a Margaret River Chardonnay and here’s another beaut, also from the Wilyabrup region, plus a fine Cabernet blend. Pierro Chardonnay 2009 (Margaret River) Pierro are renowned for their Chardonnay and I reckon this is the best I’ve tasted yet. Bright yellow/gold with green glints it’s exceptionally pure and silkily focused with great line [...]
Continue reading...Into the heart of the Hunter with Tyrrells – sublime Semillons & sensual single vineyard Shiraz
Posted Monday 15th August 2011
Participating in a Decanter panel Shiraz tasting the week before last reminded me just how exciting the Hunter Valley is at the moment, prompting me to write up the first of my winery visits, with Tyrrells. And this is where it all started -the ironbark slab hut in Pokolbin, the Hunter Valley. Hand built in [...]
Continue reading...Earthy McLaren Vale: getting to grips with biodynamic cow pat pit with Paxton’s Chief Viticulturist Daniel Lavrencic
Posted Thursday 4th August 2011
It’s day two of a Decanter panel tasting of regional Australian Shiraz today. Yesterday, we focused on South Australia and the ripe and savoury wines from McLaren Vale showed plenty of intensity. And speaking of “ripe”, below you’ll find a link to the last of the videos I took during my recent visit. This one focused [...]
Continue reading...The hills are alive! Catching up with the Adelaide Hills, including natural winemaker Anton von Klopper
Posted Tuesday 19th July 2011
Off to McLaren Vale today after a couple of days in the Adelaide Hills. I can report that the Hills are alive and teeming with a heap of new (to me) names since I last visited in 2004, while major players like Shaw & Smith, Petaluma and Nepenthe have consolidated their strengths. I’ll post a detailed report of my visit down the [...]
Continue reading...Heads up: 11% off top Aussie kit at Oz Wines over Easter!
Posted Thursday 21st April 2011
Australian specialist Oz Wines are offering a discount on online sales of 11% (just to make the maths difficult!) over the Easter break. The portfolio includes many of Australia’s most illustrious names – Charles Melton, Cullen, d’Arenberg, John Duval, Grosset, Henschke, Mount Horrocks, Primo Estate, Rockford, Shaw & Smith, St Hallett, Tim Adams, William Downie as well [...]
Continue reading...Penfolds first stand-alone Barossa sub-regional wine: Bin 150 Marananga Shiraz 2008
Posted Monday 28th February 2011
Last November I tasted a couple of new kids on the block from Penfolds, as well as some glorious old vintages of iconic wines Penfolds St Henri Shiraz (the 78, 86, 91 & 2006) and Grange (1978 and 1990). I’ve felt a little ambivalent about writing up my tasting notes because my nose and palate were in less [...]
Continue reading...Australia: this week’s A+ wines
Posted Friday 21st January 2011
This week has had a bit of an Aussie focus with Stonier International Pinot Noir Tasting, Jacobs Creek’s release of their new single-region reserve range, Australian specialist Liberty Wines’ portfolio tasting, the annual Wine Australia Australia trade tasting and the launch of Hallowed Ground, a “membership club” for boutique Australiasian producers. Phew! To borrow from [...]
Continue reading...My top five wines of the year: Australia
Posted Tuesday 28th December 2010
The end of the year is an opportunity to reflect on which wines made the most lasting impression. This week, find out which wines really captured my imagination for my areas of focus: Australia, the Loire, Portugal and South Africa. First up is Australia – you’ll find my top five wines of 2010 below (in no particular [...]
Continue reading...Australia’s wine revolution part 2: He who thinks Australian, drinks Australian
Posted Friday 3rd December 2010
On Tuesday, I blogged about Australia’s rosé revolution, but one aspect of the Australian wine industry’s wider struggle to re-define itself to the world. Australian winemaker Steve Pannell’s campaign “All for One, Drink Australian Wine” calling for a national celebration of Australian wine may seem like a jokey jingoistic Foster’s beer ad tagline, but there’s [...]
Continue reading...Australia’s wine revolution part 1 – the Rosé Revolution
Posted Tuesday 30th November 2010
Australia is undergoing a wine revolution as it struggles to shake off its seriously out-of-date sunshine in a bottle image and seeks to re-define itself to the world. You might not think rosé is a good place to start but then the Rosé Revolution, launched today (Rosé Day) by Leanne de Bortoli and her husband Steve Webber, [...]
Continue reading...Majestic, dribbling & d’Arenberg: The Deadarm Shiraz, a vertical
Posted Thursday 18th November 2010
On Tuesday night I presented a tasting for Majestic staff. That day, The Evening Standard was in majesterial form, announcing Wills’ and Kate’s engagement, also reporting on Majestic’s half-year profits (up 20%), in which context its staff were praised for “not dribbling while the talked about wine[!]“ Fortunately for them, it was down to me to talk and not [...]
Continue reading...Mudgee, New South Wales, classic & cutting edge highlights
Posted Thursday 4th November 2010
Mudgee lives cheek by jowl with its more famous neighbour, the Hunter Valley. Arguments may rage over which region is the original source of Australia’s Chardonnay cuttings, (the Burgundian one has been in continuous production in Mudgee for 150 years), but there’s no disputing that the wine styles of these two New South Wales’ wine regions are [...]
Continue reading...Heads up: McWilliams Mount Pleasant Elizabeth Semillon 2005 – only £8.99!!!!
Posted Wednesday 3rd November 2010
Yesterday, I finalised the last batch of new Australian producer profiles for Wine Behind the Label, the 8th edition of which is slated for release in a month or so. It’s been quite a job of work updating it and adding new profiles given all the vinous gems on show at the Landmark Tutorial and my subsequent [...]
Continue reading...Looking backwards & forwards: Penfolds St Henri 50th anniversary tasting & a preview of Penfolds’ new single region releases
Posted Tuesday 2nd November 2010
Yesterday was as convivial a Monday as they come. A tasting followed by lunch with Penfolds’ urbane Chief Winemaker-cum-globetrotting ambassador, Peter Gago (pictured sitting pretty at Pied à Terre). The excuse? A celebration of the 50th anniversary of Penfolds St Henri Shiraz (tasting the 78, 86, 91 & 2006) sprinkled with choice vintages of Grange (1978 and 1990) [...]
Continue reading...Capital: the wines of Canberra District
Posted Monday 25th October 2010
Spread across three sub-regions (Murrumbateman/Yass, Hall and the ACT and Bungendore/Lake George), Canberra District may have 140 vineyards and over 30 wineries but, in the UK, pretty much one producer has put Canberra District on the map: Clonakilla, whose Shiraz Viognier has recently been elevated into the top (Exceptional) tier of Langton’s Classification of Australian [...]
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Posted Friday 16th September 2011
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